TVC E. Edo state anti-bomb squad and anti riot policemen, led by Musa Uba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, have gone to secure and cordon off the four residential buildings that was Tuesday destroyed in a multiple explosions which occurred in parts of Benin City, capital of Edo state at 2pm.
It was gathered that the first explosion occurred when a patent medicine dealer, Elue Chinedu, who operated from one of the buildings, was burning the refuse he swept from the building at a refuse dump, around Oka primary school area, close to the junction popularly known as ‘three house,’ off Upper Sakponba road, in Ikpoba-Okha local government area of the state.
Another deafening explosion however went off at about 6.16 pm, when the anti-bomb squad was trying to detonate other explosives discovered.
This development heightened tension and anxiety in the entire area as people scampered in different directions for safety as the people apparently suspected that men of the dreaded Boko Haram were responsible for the explosion.
One of the occupants of one of the affected buildings and a woman who was passing by were said to have sustained serious injuries from the explosion, but no live was lost.
It was gathered that suspected kidnappers had lived in one of the buildings in the past, but left the house two years ago when security operatives raided the area.
Elue Chinedu who just rented a shop in the building disclosed that, after an electrician carried out some minor repairs in his living room, he decided to sweep and burn the refuse at a nearby refuse dump.
“An electrician came to work in the house and I said let me use the opportunity to clean the compound. I gathered the waste papers together and wanted to burn it. As I was burning the papers, I said let me go and buy ice cream. That was when the thing exploded and I sustained some injuries,” he said.
Chinedu has been arrested by the Police.
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